callan
As soon as gunfire blazed around outside, I pulled off Vera’s blindfold and thanked the fucking Redwood gods that this wasn’t Sakura. If she had been the one taken tonight, I would’ve gone on a fucking rampage, killing everyone here.
I’d have gone to prison for murder many times over.
Vera tilted her head to the ground, shielding her eyes from the bright light that hung overhead, her hair falling into her face. I crouched down in front of her and undid her restraints so she wasn’t trapped here any longer.
Blaise sprinted down the stairs, nearly tripping over his own two feet. Just as I unraveled the ropes around Vera’s ankles, Blaise collapsed onto the ground next to Vera, scooped her into his arms, and hugged her tightly.
“My fucking God,” he said. “I thought … I thought we were too late.”
She tucked her face into his chest and sobbed. “I wanna go home, Blaise. Please, I wanna go home. I’m cold and …” She shivered, goose bumps rising on her skin. “And I …” I could only imagine what she had heard, what they had tried doing to her. “I—”
“It’s okay,” Blaise reassured her, peeling off his jacket and pulling it around her shoulders. He tugged her to her feet, her legs wobbling. “You don’t have to tell me. Not now anyway.”
She grasped on to his shoulders to steady herself. “J-Jim … he—”
“Don’t worry about Jim,” Blaise said.
“But he kidnapped—”
“He’s dead,” I said, glancing at Blaise.
While Blaise was a decent kid and didn’t kill people like Poison did, I knew that he wouldn’t let Jim live after what he did to Vera.
“And we have one last person to take care of, if you haven’t already. Your mother.”
After swallowing hard, Blaise nodded. “Can you take her home?” he asked me.
She huddled next to him, shoulders shaking, and buried her face into his chest. “No. Don’t leave,” she whimpered, shaking her head. “Please, don’t go. I don’t want to be alone with anyone, except you.”
“I have to finish this, Vera,” he said. “My mom … she doesn’t deserve to live.”
Vera stared up at him through wide eyes. “Are you going to kill her?”
“If that’s what it takes,” he whispered.
While the room was empty, I couldn’t fucking leave here with them. I didn’t know what kind of people the mob had stationed around the beach. If they saw me bringing Vera home, I’d be in deeper shit.
“I can’t take her home,” I said. “Nobody can see me leaving here with you.”
“They’re going to know something is up if you walk out of here, unwounded, anyway,” Blaise said.
I drew my tongue across my teeth, reached into my pocket, and pulled out a knife. Knowing that what he had said was true, I shoved the knife deep into my thigh and bit back a grunt. Blood soaked through my pants.
“What the fuck are you—”
“Leave,” I growled, handing him the keys to my car and leaning against a wall, sliding down to the ground and clutching my thigh. Fuck, that hurts. “I can’t be seen with you. If anyone asks, say you stole my car.”
Once they ran up the stairs and out of the room, I closed my eyes and waited a long fifteen minutes. I needed to get to Sakura, but I didn’t have a car right now, and my fucking leg was leaking blood.
It’d be a forty-five-minute walk home, but it was closer than Sakura’s house. I’d clean myself up and then head to the library if it was still open tonight. Hopefully, I’d be able to avoid Georgina altogether because I didn’t have the energy for her right now.
So, I hobbled to a standing position, stumbled up the stairs, and started home once enough cars skirted out of the parking lot and guns stopped blazing.
Forty-five minutes later, I clutched my thigh with my blood-soaked hand and walked up my driveway. João’s car was parked up top, and he got out when he saw my pitiful ass trying to make it to my front door.
I bit back a curse and walked over to him, stars in my vision.
“When the fuck are you going to deal with the principal?” I asked through clenched teeth.
“Soon,” João said, arms crossed over each other as he leaned against his car.
Kai stood next to him and shoved his hands into his cargo pants.
“We can’t do all this shit at once. We were working on it before your nephew bothered us.”
“You need to kill him,” I started.
There was no question about it. If he wasn’t gonna do it, then I would. Vaughn was a growing problem, but I was just thankful that he hadn’t laid his hands on Sakura yet. Or else all hell would break fucking loose.
“Just get it done,” I growled, heading to my front door.
João chuckled and lit his cigarette. “Have you checked on Gunther lately?”
“No.”
“He’s out of the hospital,” Kai said.
“And he might’ve been at the Overlook with Sakura last night,” João taunted. “He even went back to your girl’s place, so she could nurse him back to health.”
“João,” Kai said, cutting his gaze to him, “that’s not what—”
I gritted my teeth. “What?”
“He stayed at her place last night,” he said like I was fucking deaf.
“What the fuck do you mean, he stayed at her place last night?” I growled, taking him by the collar of a shirt and slamming him against his car. “I’m not playing around with you any-fucking-more, João.”
I hadn’t seen Sakura and talked to her for days. I’d told her that I would be at the library today, so I could chat with her. It was already almost eight o’clock on a weekend. The library was probably closed now, and I’d missed my chance.
She probably thought I was ignoring her purposefully at this point. I hadn’t had time to stay while she opened the present I had gotten her. And I had been fucking up over and over and over again. Worst part about all this was that I could do nothing about it.
I released him from my grip and walked to my front door. “Get off my property.”
My life was fucked. I had the mob even more suspicious of me now. Sakura would never be safe. If I wanted to truly protect her, I would put as much distance between us as possible. I wouldn’t head to the library or to her house ever again, wouldn’t even look at her during class.
“Fuck that,” I growled while they pulled out of my driveway.
Sakura was mine, and I wasn’t going to let her go.
When I reached the front door, I slammed my hand into my pocket to pull out my key. I rummaged around for it in my front right pocket, then my left, then my back two and found nothing. I growled and knocked on the door.
Georgina was home.
No answer.
This fucking bitch …
Hobbling to the back doors near the pool and our bedroom, I ignored the stars in my vision and pounded on the door again. “Georgina! Unlock the door, you stupid fucking bitch!” I shouted, slamming my fist against the glass and glaring into the dark bedroom.
She was putting up the picture frames that I had taken down, ignoring me. In the fucking dark because this bitch was fucking psycho.
“Open up!”
The harder I banged, the more stars danced in my vision. I had lost too much blood on my way home and last night. If I didn’t bandage up my wounds and go find Sakura, I would be in some serious shit with—
I went to bang on the door once more, but found myself stumbling backward against the concrete. My gaze went dark for a moment, then came back as I tripped backward, my foot slipping back into the pool.
And as I fell into the water, my vision blackened for good.